Latest expert analysis projects $51 million annually for Kirk Cousins
Rumors galore should be expected over the next week as teams flock to Indianapolis for the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Kirk Cousins rumors and reports will be front and center.
One has already popped on Monday thanks to ESPN's Bill Barnwell predicting that Cousins' average annual salary when he signs a new contract will be a whopping $51 million.
"Any team hoping to win over the next three years that isn't in position to land one of the top starters in the 2024 draft should be trying to pursue Cousins," writes Barnwell. "That's a group that includes the Broncos, Buccaneers, Falcons, Raiders, Steelers and Titans, with the Dolphins and Seahawks as outside candidates if they move on from their current starters."
Cousins has sort of intimated that structure and a chance to win will outweigh money in his pursuit of a new contract. But nobody knows if he's looking for another fully guaranteed contract like Minnesota last gave him and it's a mystery if he'll demand three years or be open to a two-year deal.
The Vikings or any team that signs Cousins can slice his 2024 salary cap hit by giving him a sizable signing bonus and backloading the deal, but eventually the team that puts pen to paper will have to pay the piper.
If Barnwell is correct and Cousins gets a three-year deal, that's $153 million for a soon-to-be 36-year-old quarterback coming off a torn Achilles. At two years it's still $102 million.
Every team has more money to spend thanks to the 2024 salary cap rising to a record $255.4 million, so a two-year deal worth $100+ million isn't all that different than a two-year deal worth $90 million at the previous salary cap threshold.
“I don’t think it fundamentally changes a lot from the Vikings perspective," Purple Insider's Matthew Coller told Bring Me The Sports about the salary cap increasing by $30 million. "When the cap goes up, the prices go up for free agents so it doesn’t make it any easier to work around a big QB contract. It may give some other teams more cap room to make Cousins an offer though."
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Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.